As If the Sky Cared
by kaminoko-x
Summary: How much does she mean to you, really? /warning: character death /slightly sasusaku


AN: Wrote this a while back, before I got an account... found it, so I thought I'd post it. Just cause.

* * *

Sasuke always thought she wasn't that important.

_(how, how could he not see?)_

He always thought his fight was with Naruto- and she, she would be standing at the side, watching, as usual.

_(he doesn't remember her strength-pink strands drift into the wind- and her will, doesn't know how she's grown and her resolve is now stronger than steel)_

He never thought she'd have the courage to interrupt, never expected that she'd throw herself in front of him to defend an unconscious Naruto just as his arm _stabbed_, singing with the lethal energy of Chidori.

_(it is a death melody, a song of blood promising pain)_

He never realized she loved Naruto like a brother, still loved him dearly even though he betrayed her, would sacrifice everything to send them both home.

...xxx...

"Sasuke," she coughs, drops of blood speckling around her mouth. He stares in shock at his arm _in her stomach_, at her rain drenched hair, blood mixing with water- no, she wasn't supposed to get hurt, not supposed to die, not her-!

_(how important is she to you, really?)_

He pulls back, hands covered in her blood. She begins to sway, and he catches her, sinking to his knees on the muddy ground.

"Please," he says, and his voice breaks with desperation, pleading her, begging her. "Heal yourself, use my chakra, I don't know, just live, Sakura, live-"

_(maybe if you had realized- maybe if you had stayed- maybe if you hadn't chased your revenge-)_

She looks at him, green eyes bright. His Chidori destroyed her side, and there's a big chunk of her missing from her abdomen. They both know it's a fatal wound, not something she could heal on her own. And help is too far away.

Instead, she reaches up and, placing her hand on his chest, begins to heal him.

"No-Sakura-" her tries to pull her hand away, but she glares and rasps, "I'm going to _die_, Sasuke. Let me do this."

_(maybe she wouldn't have jumped in front of you-)_

When she's done, she points to the slumped form of Naruto, and he carries her over, careful not to jostle her. Her hand flops tiredly on the boy's forehead, green chakra flickering. Naruto's eyes flutter. And with hair muddy and face dirty, he comes to.

"Sasuke-wha..?" he trails off as he sees Sakura's weary eyes and blood everywhere, and hears her labored breathing.

"No…" he whispers. "No, Sakura-! You bastard, _what did you do_-"

He's cut off by her cool hand on his arm.

_(maybe she would have lived)_

"It's too late, dobe… there's too much damage." And it's then he notices Sasuke's crying, tears mixing with raindrops. The dark-haired boy's looking at him with so much regret and guilt and _i'msorryi'msorryi'msorry_- and Naruto's heart breaks.

"Naruto…" she whispers. Immediately, he grabs her hands and leans over, shielding her from the rain and wind.

_(it's the only thing left he can protect her from)_

"Promise me… promise you won't kill him over this," she says. "It wasn't his fault- or yours- I was the one who made the choice.

"Take him home, Naruto." He nods, eyes burning with tears and throat swelling with emotion.

"Thank you and… don't you dare break Hinata's heart. And- I love you, you know?" He nods again, chuckling through his tears at her ability to tease him as she dies, and chokes out, "I know… I love you too."

She smiles.

"Sasuke." And it's the Uchiha boy's turn to lean over. "You need… need to go home. And promise me that… that you'll live. Promise me you'll live."

"I promise, okay? I promise," he says, pressing her hand to his cheek. "I'm so sorry, Sakura, I'm so sorry… I, I…"

She shushes him. "It's alright. Love you too, kay?

"And both of you… I want you guys to be happy. You're _my_ boys, you deserve to be happy. And tell everyone I love them for me, please." She turns her face to the sky.

"Remember that time we went to Ichiraku's, all of us, even Kakashi-sensei?" she says with a faint smile. "And, and it was the first time we heard Sasuke laugh and-"

"I was so shocked, I fell off my seat and got ramen all over my face… I remember, Sakura," says Naruto, trying to smile.

"That was fun…" she whispers. "I wish we could've gone again…" She trails off as she begins to cough up blood.

"Sakura…" Sasuke says brokenly. She smiles.

And with a last, strained breathe, her eyes dull.

Her hand slips, limp, out of Sasuke's.

They sit, frozen. Not breathing. Not moving.

They were unable and unwilling to comprehend the fact that they just lost her, she who walked with them for nearly their entire lives, who laughed and teased and smiled with them, who cared for them and supported them, who always stood by them and _believed_, who loved them so much she would pay any price for their happiness.

_(how important was she to you, really?)_

"You know, after the war," Sasuke says suddenly. "That's what she would've said." Naruto nods mutely, tears streaking down his cheeks, no longer trying to hide his misery. He leans over, kisses her forehead and closes her eyes, and the two boys just sit there in the pouring rain. And then Naruto's shoulders begin to shake, and he cries and cries and suddenly he's howling his pain and grief to the sky, to the cruel world that took one of his best friends. And Sasuke's sobbing too, clutching her body like he never wants to let go, because now he knows exactly how much she mattered-

_(so much, so much, you love- _loved_ her didn't you?)_

-but it's too late, too late.

_(not her, not her, please, anyone but her)_

And the sky, as if it cared, cries with them.


End file.
